It’s your passport to riches, my friend. Y’see, we need a few things -- just some junk, nothing valuable to a big hero like you. We call ‘em Darkmoon Artifacts, and there’s all different kinds to be found all over Azeroth. The Darkmoon Field Guide helps you discover artifacts while you’re explorin’ dungeons, slayin’ monsters, and fightin’ in Battlegrounds. Without a guide, you’d never notice ‘em, and it’ll help keep you focused on the stuff we want. Whether you just reached level 10, or you’ve crushed the biggest baddies in the land, we need somethin’ from nearly everybody. You won’t have to go too far out of your way to get ‘em and each month you’ll get a new opportunity to seek out an Artifact for us. What do you get out of the deal? Don’t you worry, you’ll get your cut. When you bring a Darkmoon Artifact back to us, you’ll get valuable experience (it builds character, you know!), earn a better reputation, and possibly earn precious Darkmoon Faire Prize Tickets too!

Comment by Maelynn

Comment by orzothecat

New Quest item in 4.3

Comment by zurbek

Please keep in mind that the quest is not repeatable during one DMF festival. After you complete the quest you cannot get it for the second time, as it states when you use an item for the second time "You have already completed this quest". In other words - you can do the quest once every month.Now, to all the naysayers, Blizzard has confirmed that these quests are to be repeated each month. SourceThey have also stated that the quest drops that happen in the dungeons/raids/BG’s happen all the time, even if the faire isn’t in town. Source

Comment by loremistress

This item is the only one for the achievement that ONLY drops from a lv 85 dungeon. As the quest itself is only doable at lv 85 and gives 15 tokens rather than the usual 10 for the others.

Going on the info already given by people, it is my guess that this book will only drop from any of the following bosses.

Comment by Eija

Comment by Lolus

You can't get it from normals, so far I've never seen it on my realm, the only one I'm missing. Husam and Ulthok didn't drop it but I got 3 different drops from Azshara

Comment by Luckiest13

Patch 4.3 - Dec 4th, 2011

My guide to farming the artifacts needed for Darkmoon Dungeoneer:

I found these dungeons the easiest ones to complete if your wanting to farm these items. The reasons range from traveling distance, amount of trash needed to clear, running distance in the instance, and a few other things.

Ornate Weapon Stormwind Stockades (Randolph Muloch) 4/8 drops/kills ---> Why this is my choice? Because it's right in the middle of town.

Monstrous Egg: Zul'Farrak (Gahz'rilla) 1/2 drops/kills ---> Why this is my choice? Ride in, kill & ride out. And you will already be there if you are farming the Grimoire anyways (see above).

A Treatise on Strategy: Grim Batol (General Umbriss) 1/1 drops/kills ---> Why this is my choice? Of the confirmed drop chances, this one is probably the quickest one to reach with the minimum amount of trash. Unfortunately the Treatise isn't 'farmable' like the other four since it can only be obtained through a level 85 heroic instance. For this reason, my second best would have to be Stonecore (Slabhide). A lot of people run the instance for the chance of the mount drop alone, so you'd be knocking out two birds with one stone :-)

I suspect the drop rate could be as low as 5% on the bosses above. I farmed around 15 instances in total with main and alts before I saw the first drop. All those 15 instances included at least ONE of the previously confirmed drop spots. Feel free to add a reply if you find more places, so we can get a better picture of where it drop, and I will add it to the list !

Receive it from Selina Dourman just by talking to her, she stands at the first tent on the left-side of the entrance to the Darkmoon Faire.Note: if you have The Darkmoon Faire quest in your quest log, Selina will not offer to give you the guide - you will either need to drop the quest and speak to her again or simply hand in at which point you get the guide anyway.

Where do I get it? This particular item ONLY drops from Cataclysm & Pandaren heroic 5-man dungeon bosses (it seems to drop from bosses with military titles). The drop rates are also very low -- though if you RNG graces you favorably you may see one dropped by any of the following (drop locations will be updated as they are confirmed) listed in alphabetical order by boss name:

Why do I want it? There are several reasons that you may want this item:

Receive 15 Darkmoon Prize Tickets upon handing it in - these tickets allow you to purchase mounts, pets and other collectibles whenever the Darkmoon Faire is on.

Receive 250 reputation (or more depending on your racial/guild bonuses etc) with the Darkmoon Faire - great for anyone who is either a rep junkie or is working towards The Insane title awarded by the Insane in the Membrane achievement.

Having completed the quest that this item starts will count towards the achievement Darkmoon Despoiler.

Gold gold GOLD - since this item isn't BoP (bind on pickup), it is tradable and sellable via the auction house. If you don't care about the above three points, then you can profiteer from someone who does!

What else do I need to know?

The quest can only be turned in once per Darkmoon Faire. You can certainly collect more of these, however if you've turned in for the current faire, you'll have to wait till it's next in town.

This seems to be the hardest of all the DMF quest items to obtain, primarily given that it only drops from end game heroic dungeons. But for the most part, just pray to the RNG gods and eventually they may answer you.

This item can be looted anytime - that is to say, the Darkmoon Faire does not have to be currently on in order for you to be able to find these puppies.

Will frequently amend and extend this post as users request it or as I learn more.

Comment by arkensis

I had this drop off of Slabhide in Heroic Stonecore earlier today. This might partially invalidate the "military rank" idea.

Comment by butterpuffs

Just dropped from Asaad for me in HC Vortex Pinnacle.

Comment by Enscriptor

Just dropped from High Prophet Barim (3rd boss in Lost City of the Tol'vir). Finished my achievement with it. This is after I've killed the first boss and the Grim Batol first boss and a few of the others about 10+ times in randoms and never saw it drop. Yay! No more pugging!

Comment by Synrithh

Can everybody in the group loot one for themselves? Or can just 1 in the grp get it?

Comment by Vaugn

When this item drops, does it get just one player the token or does the entire party get one?

Comment by arkensis

A particular trend that I'm seeing regarding this item is that a lot of individuals are leaving their group following the deaths of the bosses that supposedly drop this item. Because the drop isn't guaranteed, and it generally drops from a non-final boss, it's causing a lot of groups to lose well-geared players who are running non-Hour of Twilight dungeons solely to obtain this.

Comment by shadra

Just for this artifact, you dont have to carry darkmoon guide on you, also again, just for this artifact, noone can roll need, everyone in the party are forced to roll greed or pass.

edit: Why you downrating this, wrong info?

Comment by Triforcia

A guildmate looted it from Daakara in Zul'Aman.

@ shadraYes you have to carry the Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide with you to be able to roll greed for it. My twink didn't have the guide when it dropped in Zul'aman and I coudln't roll greed.

Comment by Zappadohdah

Is it BoP? Going nuts queueing and thinking of getting my little tanky to work.

Comment by Vyil

Comment by Ravij

There is actually a very likely chance this drops from any Heroic dungeon boss with an army ranking name.It was stated in a blue post by Bashiok:

Thanks everyone for your feedback. To hopefully clear up some of the confusion over time investment vs reward costs we've broken down exactly how many tickets you can obtain in a single Darkmoon Faire week. The design intent of the Darkmoon Faire is that it’s available for one week out of the month, and in that one week we expect you to be able to obtain a significant amount of tickets. To clarify the OP’s point of how long it would take to obtain an entire set of cosmetic gear, the math presented was incorrect, and it would in fact only take 4 Darkmoon Faire weeks to complete an entire set. That’s of course still no quick task, and the intent is not for it to be. There are plenty of rewards that can be obtained in one or two weeks of the Darkmoon Faire, but we expect that an entire set will take a few events to obtain.

Comment by Becksflasche

Just lootet it from Ascendant Lord Obsidius in Blackrock Caverns

Comment by wowZhenek

After doing ~30 heroics wiht a friend it dropped from last boss in zul'gurub. Was quite symbolic because we ended up 2-manning it with my friend tank so as a reward for boosting retards who can't move it dropped and I won it.

The item is tradeable via party membersThe item is only greed'ableThe item has VERY low drop chance apparently.

Comment by Tahirah

Trying to obtain this is one of the most painful things I've tried to do in a long time. I have three 85s, a healer, a tank and a DPS (who is the char I am trying to get the achievement on).The number of idiots I have encountered while running Grim Batol 1/4, and Stonecore 2/4 is so great that I've been left speechless. I've had hundreds of afkers, a priest who lifegripped people into trash packs, then ran to the entrance while everyone else had died, tanks squishier than my level 20 warlock, and generally just the absolute dredge of WoW society. I don't mean just ungeared people, I mean total morons who would seem to be playing with their eyes shut.And the absolute killer? When you do see this damn book drop, only one person wins it and it is a forced greed roll. Nice, huh? I saw one on the AH for 15k the other day and thought it ridiculous, now paying that sort of price seems tempting.I honestly hope by the next DMF this isn't quite as excruciating to obtain, because really, this is just agony.In short, unless you are a die hard achievement hunter, don't even bother. Seriously, this achievement is not worth it.

Comment by HolyShield

Does it count if the first person who looted Boss have the guide or not?Or if anyone in the party have the guide then it will be in the drop?

If only one person have the guide then all the rest can roll for it?Or only members with guide can roll?

Comment by Shad0wJr

"Total Tickets per faire: 145" is not correct since you are able to win the darkmoon arena event every three hours. This chest contains 5 or 10 prizetokens as well.

Comment by Daeva444

I have done over 50 instances as a tank so to get the bags and lastnight I was hearthing to Sw and someone asked how much it was worth I replied I don't know but how much you want they said 2000 so I grouped with them and paid the 2k so make sure you check trade cause some of these bads that win them have no clue what they are :)

Comment by Shardcordal

Andy why, o why we cant quee old heroics only? Today I'm trying to get into them, 9 out of 10 - I get new ones. Yes, I know I could quee specific ones, but random should be faster, and limited only to ones before newest patch.

Comment by Ninjy

that is incorrect. you do not have to have "entering the zone"... the guy before the portal to dmf will give you the guide aswell.

Comment by twbrien

Actually you don't have to go to the island to get the guide. You can talk to the info person at the tent by the portal to get one.

Comment by Theodicus

Comment by Etreum

Comment by Deirhese

Treatise of Strategy dropped off of Commander Springvale today in heroic SFK, finally can finish the Darkmoon Dungeoneer achievement when DMF comes back around.

Comment by Mantrhax

...

Comment by Mantrhax

Hard to understand what brilliant mind behind blilzzard did this aberration ....forcing players to do "old" instances only farming a "unique" boss then leaving the lowbies alone to fill theyr party again... what a good mode to spoils someones fun...way to go blizz.

I love all those stupid things they do...dont u ?

Comment by asllapiscuNord

last week this quest item dropped off argaloth in BH 10m 2 of them dropped so only dropping off heroic bosses is not true

Comment by Zuleria

A lot of people do not have the dungeon journal and this enabled me to win 3 of these things. One has already sold for about 4k gold so be on the lookout for them for cheap or be sure to grab your dungeon journal.

Comment by Jenelope

I just sold one for 9500g, which was the lowest price on the AH at the time (New Years Eve). I don't know if that's what other people can come to expect when looking to buy/sell this one.

Comment by torin856

Well, this one really annoys me.It drops rarely and every time a guy (with max 5K dps just to make me more angry) greeds on it and wins. And then they say they don't even know what is that. Just they got the Adventurer's Guide as a quest reward so they saw it and so they greeded it even if they don't know what it is.I started to collect it 2 weeks ago,and I farm it from 5 bosses with 2 characters on every day. So that means 5×2×14=140 chance. I saw it like 5 times but every time the "guy who doesn't even know what it is" won it. Great...It really should work like this: you get a quest and you can see it dropped while you have the quest. And it should be BOP. Or some other way. It's just not fun in a way like it's now. It's annoying. At least for me.The others are good because they are farmable from low level instance but this one isn't.

But I have a question too:I farm these bosses (on heroic of course):Commander Ulthok (Throne of Tides second boss)Slabhide (Stonecore second boss)General Umbriss (Grim Batol first boss)Grand vizier Ertan (Vortex Pinnacle first boss)General Husam (Lost City of the Tol'vir first boss)

Can someone confirm drops from these ones? Because I'm not 100% sure but if I remember correctly I saw it only from Commander Ulthok (Throne of Tides second boss), but here the tutorials say the other 4 bosses too. Is the tutorial 100% legit?Thanks for the help!

Comment by Vexryn

Buying A Treatise on Strategy in particular may be popular, as it appears to have a very low drop rate from applicable bosses; moreover, the boss only drops one of the item, forcing everyone in the 5-man dungeon group who is eligible (i.e., those who have Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide) to roll on it to see who wins (unlike Soothsayer's Runes, which drops for everyone in the raid group). Alternatively, if you have A Treatise on Strategy and don't want it, try putting it up on AH - you may fetch a pretty penny for it (which is also why everyone in your group will likely roll against you for it!)!

Comment by Marlborol

If you plan to buy this off the AH, be prepared for ridiculous prices. There are 2 listed on my server, both are 22k.

Comment by Goldenspirit

Hehe, dropped 2 times for me today, won both. 1 from grand vivizer or whatever his name is and other from commander spring vale. They seem to drop from bosses with military ranks.

Comment by stooper

Just piad 19k for one on the AH, was it too much?, probably. It's the ONLY one I have seen on the AH and I just got tired of waiting.

Comment by HolyCrap11

I have "A Treatise of Strategy" for sale on the US Alliance Daggerspine server!

Pst Holycrap with your offers asap, and if I am not online then send me mail! I will be on tonight before midnight for sure!

It is going to go sooooo fast!

NO LOWBALLS!

Comment by gurumed

Got it from Commander Springvale in Shadowfang Keep at my first attempt! Rolled and won!With this one i completed the Darkmoon Faire achi's!

Comment by HolyCrap11

I am going out for the night, so if you are on US Daggerspine Alliance then go to the SW AH and buy this! I am sure you have all of the other Darkmoon Faire quest items so once you buy this and turn it in you will receive TWO, yes TWO, Achievements!

Its up for 15,575 and I wont be on before midnight anymore so if you want you will have to just buy it!

GOOD LUCK!

Comment by Nivrax

Note that, even though heroic, some of the bosses are completly soloable for a well geared Blood DK (386 ilvl when writing this). Some tips for those wanting to try:

Stonecore:The biggest problem are first three trash packs with Millhouse Manastorm. Always nuke him as prio, while interrupting Earthshapers and moving away from spinning berserkers.Do watch out for packs of small earth elementals. While their hp and damage is low, they will quickly stack armor debuff, making other mobs overpower your self healing.Make full use of your both short and long cooldowns. You can have IBF for the 1st and 3rd pack, and Army of the Dead on the 2nd.

Skip Corborus. The hallway with giants can be either brute forced (dps gear to speed it up recomended) or run through using well timed Invisibility Potion.

Slabhide itself it's quite easy fight if you remember to move from constant lava pools it will set under you (and hiding behind pillars). Dps gear once again recomended - good CD rotation is enough to survive.

Lost City of Tolvir:Again, using Invisibility potion, you can skip big pack on the left along with patrolling Captain. You have to kill pack by the bridge to open path to further boss.

Husam is a pushover like Corborus and can be killed in dps gear. He won't throw you on pillars as tank, so you just have to move out of mines and his shockwaves.

After moving past bridge, look to the right. It is possible to jump on the wall and run around Oathsworn and pygmy packs. You should use all your CDs to nuke group next to the fountain. On further one, kill the scorpion first or else your rune regeneration will suffer. Hug to the right after passing bridge to avoid aggroing 4-mob packs and most of Merchants.

Barim and his abilites hits much harder than other bosses, so tanking gear is preferable. In phase one, you should easily be able to tank him and fire phoenix (cleave it when possible). In shadow phase, keep kiting Shadow Phoenix around Barim so that it won't merge with too many souls.

Good luck with drops!

Comment by kerasi

A Treatise on Strategy dropped from the last bosses in Zul'aman and Zul'gurub for me today. I rolled against one other person in both cases and won both rolls.

Comment by GothHawk

For whatever reason, this item is going for 175k on my server.

15 Darkmoon tickets and some gold isn't worth that lol

Comment by Ragall

Heroic Slabhide is pretty easy to solo as a hunter if you rather not farm Heroics for it.

The strat is the same as if you were on normal.

I prefer BM spec but it might be possible as Marks or Survival. I use a spirit beast for trash, specced defensively, and a turtle for Slabhide, also specced defensively. My gear level is currently 395 and made up of all PvE pieces.

1. When you first enter the instance, MD to you pet, send him onto Millhouse, nuke Millhouse to 50%, dismiss pet and FD.

2. Use camo to run to the third pack. I prefer to kill the third pack one mob at a time, dismissing my pet and FD after every kill.

3. Run back to the 2nd pack and nuke Millhouse again to make him run away and summon the first boss.

4. Use camo and Aspect of the Cheetah to run to Slabhide.

5. Slabhide is much easier to solo on Heroic than say KT, from Tempest Keep, but does require you to pay attention and minimize mistakes. Focus on keeping Mend Pet always up and move as soon as a Lava Fissure is cast under your feet. Avoid standing in front of Slabhide because his Sand Blast does hurt. Move behind the pillars when he casts Crystal Storm. Use your pet's cooldowns as necessary, he does hit for a noticeable some.

That's all there is to it. Normally it takes me around 10-12min a run, making this method for obtaining A Treatise on Strategy well worth my time.

Comment by LiriellGarrosh

This item just dropped off Archbishop Benedictus in Hour of Twilight, 4:15pm (roughly) on Garrosh server. I was very surprised to see it there, as he is not on the loot table for it.

Comment by Rebecca191

Just saw this drop from the last boss in Hour of Twilight (the Archbishop), so it looks like the patch made it drop from more bosses.

Comment by tientien

Saw it drop from Murozond in End-Time. Price should go to a reasonable level at the AH now (with at least 2 bosses of 4.3 dungeons dropping it)

Comment by Puddyng

Just got one off of Mannoroth in Well of Eternity this morning.

Comment by Smurrfetteqt

I got mine today off the first boss in Vortex Pinnacle. First time I decided to Q, I chose VP because I read someone say 2 dropped in VP and all the others appeared to have 1.

I am quite over geared for VP, the other guys were in greens. /shoutouts to Tyinor for passing it over to me with out even asking!

Comment by Smurrfetteqt

I got mine today off the first boss in Vortex Pinnacle. First time I decided to Q, I chose VP because I read someone say 2 dropped in VP and all the others appeared to have 1.

I am quite over geared for VP, the other guys were in greens. /shoutouts to Tyinor for passing it over to me with out even asking!

Comment by Shermyth

I just got it from Murozond. Don't see that posted here.

Comment by Almidea

Oh my. Yes, I read 100% of all of this. UG!

I was researching if I needed the guide book on me to loot the Treatise but so many contradicting chat, I still don't know. .....1)Can anyone confirm, do you need the guide to make Treatise drop?

.....2)Do you have to run these Heroics during the Dark Moon Faire or anytime?

I looked at my achievements (where I had all artifacts, except this one) as of yesterday. After the BLIZZ update and restart, I now have NO booksartifacts showing.......3)Does anyone else have this issue? I'm submitting a report to Blizz now. Thanks.

***edit*** Blizz ticket, GM responded quickly...said it was a new issue and give them a few days to fix.

Comment by Kraniks

Comment by lysergia25

Comment by kaze950

Just dropped from Murazond. They must have hotfixed it so it drops from Hour of Twilight bosses. Should make farming it a little less painful.

Comment by Mormolyce

Yes, hotfixed for 4.3.2:

Soothsayer's Runes and A Treatise on Strategy should now drop from all appropriate Heroic and raid bosses.

Comment by aslaf

Patch 4.3.2 Hotfixes - February 2Darkmoon FaireSoothsayer's Runes and A Treatise on Strategy should now drop from all appropriate Heroic and raid bosses.Murozond's Temporal Cache now has a chance to contain Monstrous Egg and A Treatise on Strategy.

Comment by hayabusa80

it dropped by Murozond in End Time, and i won roll

Comment by zharshoul

just had this drop off murazond along with monstrous egg...

everyone hit greed on the egg yet only me and one other hit greed on the book.....not sure what this means

Comment by knowhope

You can add Benedictus from Hour of the Twilight to the list of bosses that drops it.

It can drop with another darkmoon item, on our HoT run Benedictus droped this one and the grimlore.

Happy hunt

Comment by Retardedin

Just dropped of Asira Dawnslayer In hour of twilight. I were the only one in the group eligable to loot it :D

Comment by Didikillyou

It appears to have boosted droprate since the 4.3.2.I haven't seen any for months but since the patch atleast one drops everyday.

I've compiled a easy to see table of where each item for Darkmoon Dungeoneer can be found to get the most bang for your regular/heroic dungeon queues since Blizzard "fixed" the drops so that Darkmoon Faire monthly quest items can only be looted in level appropriate dungeons. This is ordered in alphabetical order, with the instances that drops the most items for DMF items towards the top.

Notes:I'm keeping the level 80 and 85 data for people who have not upgraded from the Battlechest and Cata to MoP.If you find that a boss drops something not listed here. Leave a reply and I'll add it in, eventually.

Comment by Vihanehull

This also drops from Mannaroth at the Well of Eternity dungeon. Just got 1 from him.

Comment by jaxsonbateman

I think it's worth mentioning that despite its low drop rate, it's still only one per group. So you're fighting double RNG - the odds of actually having it drop, and the odds of beating the other likely 2-3 people in the group that have the dungeon journal (and are thus eligible to roll).

It's no wonder that this sells on the AH for 8-10k, given that it's impossible to get a mount in a single DMF without it (180 required, 175 from doing everything else).

It's also worth noting that as this gives 15 tickets, you'll be average out 180 tickets over 3 DMFs by turning it in once. Which is handy.

Comment by Byronius

After getting a full replica set, my warrior will certainly keep one, to remember Ol'Anduin by. These seem to have a weird drop chance. Three in a row drops from the HoT heroics once 4.3.2 dropped(I got them all, yay!), yet saw not even one, when I was doing the older heroics.

Comment by rets187

Got mine yesterday, it dropped from Murozond in endtime, after losing the role to this 3times i was more than happy to finally get this! Darkmoon faire here i come!

Comment by MMOSimca

Alright, I've looked through all the comments and I believe that A Treatise on Strategy was hotfixed farther than Blizzard admitted. I killed Benedictus in Hour of Twilight, and he dropped both items. However, only I (the tank) was able to roll on the Treatise, while four people were able to roll on the Grimoire. I have no possible explanation for this except that Blizzard must have changed how the Treatise drops (possibly an individual loot now?).

As you can see, nothing we currently know about the Treatise can explain why I was the only one able to see and loot The Treatise on Strategy in this scenario. Given that several other comments on this page are mentioning "luckily I was the only one who could roll" as of recent, I suspect Blizzard omitted the full changes made to the Treatise. It is possible that I was a victim of a bizarre bug or that this is some new unannounced tank incentive, but I doubt it.

Comment by SPAZ675

Woot:D Just got one, yay!Up on AH in Bloodscalp if yall want it haha

Comment by Keilden

So Lothar wrote this book, yet I got it from Mannoroth in Well of Eternity, several thousand years befor Lothar was born and the first time Mannoroth even was on Azeroth.

Comment by Silstar

I have gotten this 3 times in the last week, running Random Cata Heroics.... interesting drop rate.... And I'm pretty sure that most people in the group have been rolling on it, so they've got the adventurer's guide.....

Comment by finnishboy

can u get this at lvl 20? coz i got the mysterious egg, mysterious grimoire and ornate weapon im playing on starter edition =)

Comment by Jarakin

"Cannot roll Need" . Just imagine the reaction of all those stealers in the game .

Comment by macklemost

I was only 15 tickets away from my first 180 so I could get a Darkmoon Mount finally and I looted (A Treatise on Strategy) from Scarlet Halls Armsmaster. Sadly the Darkmoon Faire had just ended 20 minutes prior :( lol

Comment by Goodwinn

Here is a macro for quickly determining which Darkmoon Artifacts you've turned in so far for that month...

After running it you should see each artifact's name and either "TURNED IN" or "NOT TURNED IN" next to it. If you see a bunch of nil's instead just run it again.

Comment by Zapph

As of 6.2 this and the other boss-dropping Darkmoon quest items have a chance to drop from any appropriate-level dungeon or raid boss and some higher-level trash as personal loot instead of group loot from specific bosses as they did previously.

Comment by NinjaLooterLoveU

Also dropped by Coren Direbrew of the Brewfest, Seasonal Event.

Comment by Cetane50

Easiest way. XP cap a toon at level 20 and farm Stockade. If you dual box (same server) or have a guildee run you even better. You can only have one in your bags at a time on your level 20.

Comment by Damastes

So is there an update for these items now that Legion has come out? Or these items are still locked to MoP down?